Electric bikes are starting to appear in Dumaguete, but mostly they are ready-built and the price is compared to a slightly used motorcycle. There are a lot of DIY kits in the internet. All you have to do to convert your bicycle into ebike is replace one of the wheels and connect some wires (video). Thу cheapest ebike kit costs around $200 without batteries and delivery. And battery is the most important part of an Ebike. It defines how long and how fast you can go. There are a lot of different types of batteries from cheap SLA (lead acid standard like in motorcycles) that can handle only 200-300 recharging cycles to modern and 5-times more expensive LifePO4 which can be recharged more than 1500 times (>5 years of usage). What do you think about Ebikes? Do you want one? I think I could order 10-20 kits if people will be interested, but first I want to discus it with the community.
I think they're great, and what's more they're silent, which is a rare quality in the very noisy city of Dumaguete. The last one I saw on sale was in the entrance of Lee Plaza, on offer for 21000peso. It was snapped up by Nigel from the Tongo Sail Inn, with a view to shipping it to Oz, where they are considerably more expensive. It's so efficient however, that he uses it to get from the Inn to the boatyard in effortless silence. Now, if only someone could devise a solar pack for them .................................
Ebike is good for people, who want to ride a motorcycle, but can't because of some reasons (like bike prices, age, driving license, registration, safety, insurance or maintenance) People, who rides a bicycle everyday usually don't want to upgrade it to ebike, because they find pedaling useful from the moment they thought about a bicycle. But those, who are tired of their wife asking to take her to the nearest shop, or kids, who are asking your bike to go to the school, ebikes will be useful i think. I want to buy one for my gf. If there will be interested people, we could share the shipping costs.
It all depends on battery. On a flat road with an average driver two good SLA batteries will give you a range around 20km and will cost around $30-40. But they will not last long, probably not more then a year. Lithium batteries of same capacity can work much longer, they are lighter but more expensive. If you want a wider range, you can just add more batteries of the same type. Here is a good info about different batteries ELECTRIC BICYCLE FORUM • View topic - Batteries- The basics. And here is a useful table of batteries comparison Endless-sphere.com • View topic - Battery Basics